I remembered this today, because I felt like I had something to share. It is not world-impacting, and it is probably not interesting to almost anyone.
I am grateful.
I have not been grateful for a long time, and it took a long conversation with an old friend to bring me back to this particular state of being.
Last night I spoke to Sr. MAD, formerly Ray X. She has decided to dedicate her life to God, and she is doing it with a full, open heart. As I listened to her contarme the story of her life in the past year, I remembered all of the joy we have shared! Because if anyone is to call me an eternal optimist, they have not met this woman. She is more than a few steps ahead of me in the happiness department. And she understands something that it is hard to convey to many people - there is joy and growth and peace to be found in all walks of life. The good can be found anywhere, if one looks for it. It is not always overwhelming. Good can be difficult to uncover, especially in a hard situation. But it is there.
At the risk of revealing too much, I will say that my Ray X received some bad news that makes her and her family very sad. They will be struggling for months, perhaps years, with this news and this reality. It is cancer, and a future of illness and death. And I wish I had recorded the words that flowed to easily from her mouth, because she is praying even as she speaks, and voicing what good there is even if it is not instilled in her heart. She knows, as I know, that speaking the good, hearing the good voiced, is the first step to making it your reality.
So today, I am grateful. For my life, my job, my family, my friends. Life is good. I can see the good.
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